Add Existing Project Dialog Box

Use this dialog box to select existing projects and add them to your solution. You can add an existing project from local or network directories and Web sites. Access the Add Existing Project dialog box by selecting Add Project on the File menu. A solution must be open in order to access this dialog box.

For a conceptual overview of solutions and projects, see Introduction to Solutions, Projects, and Items.

Warning

Before opening an existing project or component, determine the trustworthiness of the code outside of the Visual Studio designer. Opening projects or components in the Visual Studio designer automatically executes code from that project or component on your local machine in the trusted process of devenv.exe.

Note

Before adding an existing project from shared directories in a multi-developer environment, you should attempt to ensure that your changes do not adversely affect or overwrite another developer's changes.

• Look in
  Use this drop-down list box to select an existing project by exploring a hierarchically structured view of files, folders, local drives, mapped network drives, and pointers to other Web resources on your computer.

  Tip

  You can use the Look in drop-down list box to add, modify, or remove an FTP location.

My Places Bar

• Desktop
  Displays the files and folders located on the desktop.

• My Projects
  Displays the files and folders at the location specified in the General, Projects and Solutions, Options Dialog Box.

• My Computer
  Displays the contents of your floppy disk, hard disk, and CD-ROM drive.

• <Source Control Plug-in>
  Displays the contents of a source control database or repository. For more information, see How to: Open a Project or Solution from Source Control.

Folder List

• File name
  Use this text box to filter files and folders by name. Type the full or partial file name on which to filter, using an asterisk (*) as the wildcard character. Filtering allows you to locate a file or folder whose full name or exact location is unknown.

  Tip

  Navigate to Web and network locations by entering the URL or network path in the File name box. For example, "http://mywebsite" displays the files available at the "mywebsite" Web location and "\\myserver\myshare" displays the files available at the "myshare" location on "myserver."

  Note

  If you try to access and build Visual C++ projects directly over a network, you will experience problems. Visual C++ does not perform any special operations to accommodate network drives and shares, and it is unaware of whether the file it is reading or writing is on a network drive or a local drive. Use of Visual C++ in this manner is not supported. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 255252.

• Files of type
  Use this text box to filter project files by file extension. This drop-down list box contains all project file types for installed Visual Studio components. Filtering by file type is especially useful when searching for a project item whose exact name is not known.

Toolbar

• Navigate Back
  

  Returns the most recently viewed folder, drive, or internet location.

• Up One Level
  

  Navigates the tree to the next highest folder in the tree view.

• Search the Web
  

  This button is not available.

• Delete
  

  Deletes the selected files or folders from storage.

• New Folder
  

  Displays the New Folder dialog box. Use this option to create a new child folder under the folder selected in the Look in drop-down list box.

Views

Provides options for arranging and viewing the contents of the item selected in the Views drop-down list box.

• Thumbnails
  Displays thumbnails for items in the display pane.

• Tiles
  Displays files and folders as large icons.

• Icons
  Displays files and folders as small icons.

• List
  Displays files and folders in a list format.

• Details
  Displays the name, size, type, and last-modified date of files and folders in a list format. To sort by a particular detail, click its column header.

• WebView
  This command is not available.

Tools

Select a tool to apply to the item selected in the contents pane.

• Delete
  Deletes the selected file or folder from storage.

• Print
  Prints the selected file.

• Add to "My Places"
  Adds the folder to the shortcuts on the My Places bar, to the left of the files and folders list.

• Properties
  Displays the property sheet for the selected item.

See Also

Concepts

Introduction to Solutions, Projects, and Items

Projects as Containers

Other Resources

Managing Solutions, Projects, and Files